Etsy: ‘There’s a lot of amazing tech talent and a great community in Dublin’

Etsy launched an Irish operation back in 2013, setting up first in the Digital Hub and then in a dedicated space on Strand Street. The company continues to grow here, and is now seeking to expand the Dublin engineering team.

That brought Etsy to Career Zoo, where we sat down with Lauren Sperber and Michael Rembetsy to talk about the company’s famed focus on diversity, their views on the talent gap and tech pipeline, and how Etsy deals with tech’s retention problem.

On that latter point, Etsy has a somewhat unique approach: they just don’t worry about it. In fact, they embrace it.

“We try to empower people to get the career that’s right for them. If that isn’t at Etsy, that’s okay, and it’s something we embrace,” says Lauren Sperber, senior software engineer.

Michael Rembetsy, VP of technical operations, agrees: “It’s a career for life mentality, no matter where they are. But that puts the onus on the employer to try and keep the employees engaged, keep them feeling fulfilled at what they’re doing, and more motivated.”

Open-mindedness aside, the company does try to keep as many staff as possible, encouraging career growth within Etsy to combat job-related boredom.

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“We work really hard to allow people to transition between roles,” says Sperber.

This also feeds in to how the online marketplace combats the perceived talent gap in the tech sector. According to Sperber, helping “trusted, known employees transition to a more technical career from a less technical role” can help narrow that gap considerably.

Rembetsy sees the talent gap as a symptom of companies themselves, not of the industry – perhaps companies are too slow to change their practices. They should, he posits, be more accepting of a variety of different working arrangements, like remote working. In that way, companies can reach the outlying talent.

To learn more about working at Etsy, watch the full interview with Sperber and Rembetsy:

Looking for tech jobs in Ireland? Check out our Featured Employers section for information on companies hiring right now.

Kirsty served as Silicon Republic’s Careers Editor from when she joined the company in 2015 up to August 2017. When she was younger, she had a dream where she started and won a fight with a T-Rex, so she’s pretty sure she kicked butt at this, too. Passions include eating all the cake, watching more TV than is healthy, and sassy comebacks. Her favourite thing on the internet is, and will likely remain, Pun Dog.